Autumn 2007

Early childhood education & care

The powerful language of music

Research emphasises children’s competence when they encounter meaningful experiences as part of daily life. Berenice Nyland observes how three-year-old children can relate to musical experiences in a highly competent manner.

Music is an important part of life and culture. However, there is a growing trend for the curriculum to become narrow and concentrate on formal skills associated with literacy and numeracy. A government report in 2005, ‘Augmenting the Diminished’, argued music in primary school education was endangered. A survey of early childhood pre-service teacher courses has also indicated music appears to be under threat. Music is one of humanity’s most important languages and children have a right to high quality music experiences in early childhood programs.

Music as language and human expression

Many claims are made for the centrality of the role of music in the human experience. Doreen Bridges has pointed out that from the time of Plato, educators have needed to justify the place of music in general education. Two kinds of arguments have been used by educators to promote music in education: that music is of intrinsic value and extrinsic value. In the intrinsic category, they claim that music is a fundamental human activity, and part of our heritage. Music is, along with gesture one of the oldest forms of human communication and expression, older than written language or visual art. Music is considered one of the human languages in the sense that it is one of the ways in which humans make sense of the world and communicate what they know of the world.

Claims made for the extrinsic value of music in education include the notion that involvement in music has a beneficial influence on the development of the brain (for example, in the integration of the left and right hemispheres of the brain). In a similar vein is the debate about the efficacy of having young children listening to Mozart in order to improve cognitive development. Exploration of music concepts has long been associated with mathematical understanding.

The very nature of music, in its various forms, lends itself to the time-honoured early childhood idea that process is more important than product and provides opportunities for creativity and self-expression.

Children’s right to music

Views about individual cultural identity have become more central to educational thinking and the role of music in the social and cultural contexts in which children learn is important. Music making has the potential to be a cohesive force in the social community where children sing, play and share their growing view of the world. There has even been the suggestion that music has the capacity to encourage interpersonal and indeed international understanding. Music also offers personal enrichment and music education should be seen as a human right for each child.

Music in the everyday

Two observations are presented here. They are taken from a program where children have access to a trained musician who uses her knowledge and skill to explore their immediate environment and extend the ideas they encounter in their preschool program each day. These are a group of three-year-old children. They enjoy singing, and observations indicate that these children are able to sing, as a group, well in tune, and to learn sometimes quite extended and sophisticated songs quickly. Their group singing tone is gentle and musical, and bears no resemblance to the energetic roar sometimes heard in early childhood settings. Their singing also does not resemble the taped children’s songs, based on popular music genres, used in many centres. When invited to choose an instrument, perhaps to accompany their singing, it is not unusual to observe these children spontaneously playing, accurately, on the beat of the song, using the instruments with respect and finding a ‘musical’ sound. The children also demonstrate the capacity, as a group, to listen intently.

Observations

1. In the first observation, a group of twelve children are filmed sitting in a formal circle time. A song is being introduced: a Brazilian folk-song called ‘Mama Paquita’. The song is played on a recorder, the musician sings the song and then invites the children to clap the rhythm with her. The group sings and claps the song twice. The music group finishes with a familiar song and poem. The group has finished and two children turn to each other and sing a whole verse of ‘Mama Paquita’. To emphasise the distinctive rhythm and accents, these children clap the palms of their hands against each other like a primary school game.

Comment

These children show enthusiasm for music that has a distinctive rhythm pattern, narrative and Latin American sound. The two children, girls, display an ability to remember and represent the music through singing, words, movement and touch. Textbooks tell us that children of this age learn through imitation. These children had listened to the melody played on an instrument and then sung unaccompanied. They had joined in singing and clapping. They extended this experience by adding collaborative hand clapping. The children had watched and participated in this song in a way that is indicative of ‘intent participation’ as Barbara Rogoff would say. That is, they had observed, participated and then replicated their own version showing their ownership of the material.

2. Children are engaged in spontaneous play and have access to inside and outside. Two boys have chosen the outside area which is extensive and consists of gardens, sand, open space, climbing, swings and a sheltered verandah area with displays and painting apparatus. A platform has three musical instruments placed upon it. One of these is a large wooden xylophone reminiscent of one that might be introduced by a teacher using the Orff approach. The observation was recorded through a series of photos. In the first photograph, one boy is standing over the xylophone and reaching for a note on the instrument. The second boy is already holding one of the wooden notes. When another note is removed the first boy runs a mallet along the xylophone. They look at each other and say no. In the next few pictures these actions are repeated in differing ways. More notes are removed and some are put back on. Both boys participate in each activity of removing, replacing notes and trying the sound with the mallet. Eventually they decide they need help and the first boy goes over to the teacher to ask for help.

Comment

In this observation, two young children show considerable expertise in exploring sound. Their play with the xylophone suggests they understand the idea of single sounds and combining sounds for a planned effect. The nature of the xylophone and its components is well demonstrated. The acknowledgement that assistance (scaffolding) is needed to make further progress with their collaboration is interesting and shows focus and a refined musical aim that goes beyond exploration and has a more scientific bent. What is impressive is that these two children have managed to imagine a sound and shared this imagining in an engaged and practical manner.

Discussion

The skills and knowledge these children display is fostered by the relationship the children have to the musician, each other, the experiences they bring to the group and the interest the musician arouses through her own relationship with the children, her music and introducing material that evokes such a response. These examples are taken from a program that employs a trained musician. Similar experiences, relevant to their own social and cultural context, are the right of every child. If music is not emphasised in early childhood pre-service courses, if teachers are not confident, then what will be the missed opportunities for children to develop the competence to use music as one of the languages of life?

References

Bridges, D (1994). Music, Young Children and You, Hale and Iremonger, Sydney.

Rogoff, B (2003). The Cultural Nature of Human Development, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Website

The Orff Process by Deborah Leeson www.musicstaff.com/Lounge/article5.asp

Berenice Nyland is a senior lecturer at RMIT.

The author owns the copyright in this article. For information related to the reuse of this work in any form please contact the publisher denise.quinn@curriculum.edu.au